1 . David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) is delighted to welcome faithful supporters and new friends to join us at our annual Wildlife Ball to celebrate the natural world and conservation. Hosted by the grand Dorchester Hotel in London, the DSWF Wildlife Ball will take place on the 27th July 2022 where we’ll bring the wilderness to life with our very own Sundown Safari (观赏之旅).

Join a black-tie gastronomical (美食) safari

As part of a black-tie gastronomical safari, guests will be treated to a mouth-watering three-course meal, enjoy world-class entertainment and listen to insightful and inspiring speeches about DSWF’s conservation work to turn the tables on extinction.

The DSWF Wildlife Ball helps raise vital funds and awareness for our essential work, protecting endangered species and their habitats across the world. After a year away we are excited to be welcoming you back and look forward to being your guides at what promises to be a night to remember in support of wildlife.

Last year, the virtual Wildlife Ball raised over £800,000 for DSWF’s vital conservation efforts across Africa and Asia, despite not being able to celebrate in person. We are really excited to invite you back to the Dorchester Hotel, who are our generous hosts, and together aim to celebrate wildlife and the wilderness in style and to raise vital funds to help in the fight for a greener future.

Book tickets to the Wildlife Ball 2022

Book tickets or register your interest today to avoid disappointment. Either by emailing the team at wildlifeball@davidshepherd.org or by calling the DSWF office on 01483 272323.

Individual Tickets: £200 (Children under 12 get 40% off)

VIP packages are available on request.

3 . We had just completed a unit on heroes, and I had given my kindergarten class a task to ________ their favorite hero. Each child was ________ with the task, creating colorful masterpieces.

However, one little boy was having ________ with the task. Cameron was with autism, but that didn’t matter to me or his classmates. We all ________ him just the way he was. I sat and watched as Austin, a precocious little boy, ________ with Cameron. Within a few minutes, Cameron quickly began drawing and then coloring his paper.

Finally, it was time for everybody to share their pictures. I listened as each student ________ stood in front of the class, picture held high, and ________ his or her hero. It was finally Cameron’s ________. He stood up and anxiously placed his drawing in front of his ________ to avoid eye contact. We all fixed our eyes on the picture.________ to know who it was. He then said it was a picture of me. He added that I helped him learn things and then ________ sat down. Tears began to form in my eyes, but nothing could have ________ me for what happened next.

When Austin stood up, he proudly held up a picture of Cameron. Austin shared that Cameron was his hero because Cameron had this ________ that made it really hard to learn, but he was like Superman and was really smart.

Cameron immediately stood up, and put his arms up in the air as if he were going to ________, yelling out, “I’m Superman!” The entire class began striking Superman poses, too. Within minutes, we were all laughing as though we had truly discovered the secret of becoming ________.

4 . In looking through your social media, there’s a good chance you’ve noticed pictures accompanied by texts. The pictures are likely made possible by a text-to-image program called DALL-E. For example, Twitter user posted a tweet with the text, “To be or not to be, rabbi holding avocado, marble sculpture.” Then a matching picture appears below.

The AI models come from Google’s Imagen software as well as OpenAI. a start-up backed by Microsoft. On its website, OpenAI calls DALL-E “a new Al system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.” But most of what’s happening in this area is coming from a relatively small group of people sharing their pictures. That’s because Google and OpenAI have not made the technology broadly available to the public.

The text-to-picture services identify the most important parts of a user’s text and then guess the best way to picture those terms. There’s generally a text box, a button to start the generation process and an area below to display images. To indicate the source. Google and OpenAI add watermarks in the bottom right comer of images from DALL-E and Imagen.

Engineers trained the models on various collections of words and pictures from the web. OpenAI recognizes the potential for harm that could come from a model. To avoid the risk, employees removed violent content from training data, and there are filters（筛选）stopping DALL-E from producing images if users submit（提交）violent or illegal content.

Boris Dayma, a developer from Texas spelled out the problems in an explanation of their software. Despite the risks, Dhariwal, a research scientist at OpenAI, said it could open up creative opportunities for individuals and could help with commercial applications for dressing up websites. Results should continue to improve over time.

5 . Picture the scene: you’ve spent years working towards a very specific goal. You’ve put in countless hours of work and made many efforts along the way, but now that you’ve got there it doesn’t feel quite like you imagined. Instead of celebration, you feel emptiness, confusion and doubt.

Welcome to the anti-climax. The often-experienced but seldom-discussed downside of achieving life’s biggest milestones. Many of us work tirelessly towards our goals. We may spend our lives dreaming of the day we get married, publish our first hook or buy our first home. However, oftentimes, when we achieve these things it doesn’t feel quite as expected. In fact, the achievement of these goals feels a bit of a letdown.

So why do we often experience an anti-climax with big goals, even though we’re happy to achieve them? “An anti-climax can be an unexpected by-product of a milestone achievement. Usually, the more significant the milestone, the greater the anti-climax may be. The intensity（强度）of an anti-climax often relies on what we expect of this achievement.” says Rachel Vora. a psychotherapist（心理治疗师）.“The journey to achieving a milestone can he exciting and tiring in addition to giving us a sense of purpose and focus. Therefore, when this disappears overnight. we can often feel lost and confused, in spite of feeling proud of our achievement.

When this happens it can contribute to a mixture of emotions. We often falsely believe that we’ll feel completely different afterwards or that our feelings of low self-worth will disappear, but this is rarely the case. “Clients（客户）often present to me with an extremely great sense of ‘is this it?’ and ‘what now?’.” says Vora. “These feelings of confusion and disappointment, if let ignored, have the potential to cause clients to be in low spirits, or even worse.”

6 . It was supposed to be a normal trip to the supermarket. My son was little, and it was getting close to nap time, so I was rushing. But when I went to start the car, I realized that I must have locked my keys in the trunk with my bag.

So I took my son and went back inside the store. I had to use their phone to call my husband for the spare key. After many calls and messages with no answer. I was getting upset. My son was tired and getting fussy. I was exhausted from a sleepless night that all moms go through when their kids are teething. When he went into full-on crying, I felt tears come down my face, too.

An employee at the store tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to come with her. I was fearful for a moment, thinking I was going to be scolded and thrown into the storage area to keep us quiet. The employee, whose name was Kelly, took me, to my surprise, to the Starbucks cafe inside the store. She bought me a coffee and settled down with us. As we talked, my son settled into a sound sleep. After about fifteen minutes, she said her break was over and if I couldn’t contact my husband, they would get the trunk open.

After I got home that day, I kept thinking about what Kelly had done for me and wanted to do something. So, Kelly from the Safeway in Delaware, these are the things that you have done because I was thinking of your kindness as I did them: bolding doors for people, letting someone ahead of me in line, hitting “yes” on the donation button at the checkout, and many others.

I am so glad I locked my keys in the car that day. Who would have thought a cup of coffee could have so much of an effect on a person?

7 . We want to achieve zero fines and not have any items returned late. However, library fines are definitely necessary. More about fines:

Lost items

The Lost Item charge will apply if we mark an item as Considered Lost because it is not renewed within the required period. You should pay the replacement cost of the item. If it is still not renewed after the due date, you have to pay extra ￡200, plus a10 inconvenience charge. If you have paid for a Considered Lost item and find it later, you will not be returned the cost of the item, but can keep the item.

Late items

How to avoid fines

◆ Check the “Fines & Fees” tab regularly.

◆ Check your email for requests which have changed the return date.

◆ Return the item as soon as possible to keep your fine low.

◆ Contact us if you have a problem visiting the Library to discuss your options.

How to pay your fines/charges

◆ Use credit card.

◆ Pay online using the University’s Online Store.

For more information, please contact us

◆ In person at the Library and IT Help Desk

◆ Email lib-enquiry @ york. ac. uk

◆ Phone (01904 32) 3838

Note

Feel that a fine or charge is unfair? Click HERE to express your views for Library fines.

8 . The first attempt to mix visual arts and technology together dates back to the 60s’ when New York-based artists teamed up with scientists and engineers to deliver remarkable performances. Speaking of influential artists mixing tech and arts, Andy Warhol immediately comes to mind. He was among the first to create digital drawings on an Amiga computer in 1985.

When Covid-19 hit, the art industry struggled. About 95% of art-related events were canceled while 24% of organizations were forced to reduce staff. And yet, 65% of them are still managing to deliver content. Let’s see how technology impacts the art industry and helps it overcome the pandemic-induced challenges.

The artists try to use all kinds of technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots, sensors and IoT, AR and VR to create. For example, artists Julian Adenauer and Michael Haas created a robot that moves around on a canvas (画布) leaving a colorful trail. This art piece is fixed on the wall of the Berlin Gallery. It is changing every day as the robot keeps moving around, adding color in response to Haas’s idea of creation, “the process of creation is ideally endless.”

There are issues that we need to address when using technology in the arts. For example, in online streaming, paying the intellectual property taxes became a complicated matter. Another concern is who owns the copyrights of AI-generated art. Despite these obstacles, technology widens our horizons whether we produce or simply enjoy arts. If you have an idea of bettering your studio, museum, or art research with technology, don’t hesitate to reach out.

9 . Calligraphy, in the DNA of Chinese culture, has been inherited(继承) by Chinese people from ancient times to the present, showing no signs of fading even today. Millions of modern Chinese show their respect to great ancient calligraphers by imitating model calligraphic books by ancient masters year in and year out. Among these artistic superstars, Su Shi stands out as one of the brightest.

Su Shi(1037-1101), alias Su Dongpo, was a famous writer, calligrapher, and painter of the Northern Song Dynasty. As a brilliant calligrapher, his artistic taste and calligraphy theory have profound influence on modern calligraphy learners, both professionals and amateurs.

The great significance of Su Shi’s calligraphy lies in his advocacy of yi(self-expression), which became a feature of Song calligraphy. Through yi, calligraphers can express their genuine feelings and bring forth a rich association of ideas. Regarded as the third most famous semi-cursive(行书) work in Chinese history, Han Shi Tie is Su Shi’s finest calligraphic one. The whole work seems fully controlled by the author’s emotions, thereby breaking many conventions.

His second theoretical belief was to capture the spirit of previous masters rather than rigidly imitating their forms. In learning from Yan Zhenqing, a great calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, Su Shi succeeded in capturing Yan’s spirit even though he ignored his calligraphic form.

Su Shi also put great emphasis on the importance of individuality. His artworks are like needles hidden within cotton—inward strength and outward softness.

Finally, Su Shi emphasized the importance of staying natural. He pointed out that the basic requirement in holding the brush is to leave the hand open and loose. A relaxed mind paired with a natural hand gesture will leave the calligrapher in the best mood for creating.

It is safe to say Su Shi will be admired by future generations. It is not only because of his remarkable calligraphy but his personality.

10 . Five Star Yellowstone Tour

Discover the world’s oldest national park, Yellowstone, on this grand wildlife tour. Our professional guides will give you a 5 star customer service experience on your all inclusive tour without any additional taxes or booking fees.

Starting at approximately 7 am, we will be rolling out the red carpet for you and all you have to do is to sit back and enjoy the ride. We provide snacks, bottled water, and cooked food for lunch. This tour’s main focus is on the wide variety of wildlife, Yellowstone’s rich historic landscapes as well as the fascinating prospect formed by the Yellowstone Supervolcano for over millions of years. Binoculars (双筒望远镜) are provided to help you appreciate the scenery better.

Whether you are an amateur photographer, a science or history enthusiast or just want to explore the outdoors, this tour has something for everyone. Our fun but professional guides will give you a first class tour in a very comfortable tour bus.

Duration: 10-12 hours

Taking Covid-19 safety measures: Click here

Hotel pickup offered

Group size: 9

Ticket type: Mobile

Available language: English

Scheduled date: Check availability

Total fees: $300 per adult (age 13-99); 40% discount (age 1-12)

Reserve now & pay later: Learn more

Free cancellation: For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours in advance of the start date of the experience.

Now you’re all set! Have a great time.